Clark: Opening of Meridian’s Project West Wind

Address at Opening of Meridian
Energy’sProject West Wind(Makara Wind
Farm)

Quartz HillMakaraWellington

9.25am

Thursday 27 September 2007

It's great to be
here to turn the first sod of this project and see for
myself the site chosen. Indeed when visiting a wind farm
site, it generally is very apparent why it was
chosen.

Makara will have the first wind farm in the
Wellington area. At between 140 and 150 megawatts, it will
make a substantial contribution to our energy supply,
producing enough power to supply Wellington City when the
wind is blowing.

I opened another of Meridian’s wind
farms, White Hill in Southland, in June. At the time, New
Zealand was generating 170 megawatts of electricity from
wind farms. A few months later, our generation capacity is
almost double, at 320 megawatts. With West Wind, our wind
generation capacity will significantly increase again.

I
am told that Meridian expects West Wind to be one of the
most productive wind farms in the world.

The strong and
consistent winds mean Project West Wind will be generating
electricity over 90 per cent of the time, and generating at
full capacity almost half of the time.

That’s
impressive, as I understand that the average wind farm only
operates at full capacity 23 per cent of the time. Overseas
wind farm operators will look at West Wind with envy.

Good
renewable energy resources are often located far away from
where the demand for them is. West Wind is different. It
is on the doorstep of a major city. There will be few
cities in the world, let alone capital cities, which can
generate renewable electricity from within their boundaries.

During the RMA consenting stage, West Wind attracted a
great deal of attention. Well over 4000 submissions were
received, of which over 3000 supported the project.

The
Wellington City Council and Greater Wellington did a
commendable job in processing the application and making a
timely decision. I am sure they were relieved that the
Environment Court confirmed the councils’ original
decisions.

Wind farms are assuming greater importance in
our energy mix as New Zealand and the rest of the world look
for ways to meet the challenges posed by climate
change.

Last week, I announced a significant part of the
Labour-led Government’s plan to fight climate change.

We believe that an emissions trading scheme, which puts a
price on emissions, creates the right incentives across the
economy to use fuel and energy more efficiently, and to
think about how we use resources and manage our land.

Stationary energy, which includes electricity generation,
will join the scheme in 2010.

The government’s
emission trading scheme has been very well received. I
believe New Zealanders are ready to take responsibility for
reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

The Government has also
agreed on specific medium and long-term objectives and
targets to move New Zealand towards greater sustainability.

- By 2025 our target is to have ninety per cent of
electricity generated from renewable sources.

- By 2040
our target is to reduce by half per capita emissions from
transport.

- We aim to be one of the first countries to
introduce electric vehicles widely, and;

- By 2020 we aim
to achieve a net increase in forest area of 250,000
hectares.

Achieving those targets will move us
significantly towards our vision of New Zealand becoming
carbon neutral.

With this programme our electricity
sector could reasonably be seen as carbon neutral by 2025,
the rest of our stationary energy sector by 2030, and our
transport sector by 2040.

I want to talk more about two
of these targets.

The renewable energy target is
affordable and achievable. With our plentiful renewable
energy resources, it is easier for New Zealand to commit to
a low emissions electricity system than almost any country.

We do need a high rate of investment in new renewable
generation from our abundant renewable resources.

Projects
such as West Wind and investment in renewable generation
from companies like Meridian Energy will be critical in
meeting our target.

The second target I want to talk about is
that objective to be the first country to widely deploy
electric vehicles.

With our high renewable energy use,
electric vehicles make good environmental and economic
sense. We could become world leaders in producing
sustainable transport energy.

It is very encouraging
that Meridian shares our vision. Last month, Meridian
announced that it will run a trial of electric vehicles next
year.

I commend Meridian on its leadership in this area.
It makes sense for the company, as a renewable generator
with a commitment to becoming carbon neutral, to trial
electric vehicles.

The government will be watching this
trial with great interest.

As I remarked in my Prime
Minister’s statement to Parliament early this year, New
Zealand’s future is dependent on long-term sustainable
strategies for our economy, society, environment, and
culture.

These strategies have to be driven by strong
leadership and sound policies.

Two more important
sustainability strategies will be released next month : the
New Zealand Energy Strategy and the New Zealand Energy
Efficiency and Conservation Strategy. They set out the
government’s vision for a sustainable energy system and
the initiatives we will be undertaking to achieve it.

These initiatives will complement the emissions trading
scheme.

The Minister of Energy, David Parker has already
welcomed the input from thousands of businesses, groups, and
individuals on New Zealand's energy and climate change
future.

We’re very grateful to all those who took the
time to make submissions, and give us the benefit of their
considered views on the wide range of issues covered by the
draft strategies and the companion documents.

The next few
years in the energy industry will be both challenging and
exciting, and we look forward to working with key
stakeholders as we develop a more sustainable nation.

This
new wind farm, once operational, is an important step along
the way. It gives me great pleasure to be here as
construction gets
underway.

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